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Azzan Tal-Sachar
A con artist, forger, assassin, and all-around covert operative, Azzan works equally well in the shadows or in plain sight - but is never truly seen. He is a mercenary and, more than once, a traitor... particularly to Arielle. Abilities As an Agent Azzan is a highly trained and accomplished intelligence operative, from the same division of “Mossad” as Arielle Meir-Shira, the Katsa Jumpers of the Duvdevan, where he specialized primarily in mission support and infiltration. While fully capable of executing missions, Azzan’s specialty lies in preparation, in laying the groundwork to make the eventual operations proceed flawlessly; and he is an artist at his work. One of the true masters of the art during his time in the Devdevan, Azzan is capable of creating flawless false identities, not just in forging the paperwork, but creating entire histories, building an elaborate tapestry of falsehood indistinguishable from reality – it was once said that Azzan could build a convincing enough trail to convince a Shiite that a Sunni was, in fact, correct about the succession. During actual operations, Azzan rarely touches a weapon or enters into direct combat – he prefers to work with his hands far from any actual encounter, pulling lightly on his many strings and getting work done far more indirectly, a talent that made him exceptionally useful to the Duvdevan. He is an expert with explosives, as well as with explosions and poisons – a talent which he often made use of as an interrogator, where he was known both for his effectiveness and terrifying lack of mercy. While skilled with firearms as any Jumper, Azzan’s strongest combat talent lies with bladed weapons and the laying of often elaborate traps, generally avoiding direct combat until the situation is most favorable. He is capable of moving with all the silence of a ghost, and is a skilled ventriloquist and mimic, able to disorient and confuse his enemies with a variety of tactics to lure them into such a situation. In person, he is as much a chameleon as his shifting identity. A master of more than twenty languages, often with several dialects, and far more accents, Azzan’s skill with languages is nearly unmatched, one of the many skills that makes him so effective at manipulating assets and potential enemies alike. He can shift his demeanor and apparent personality in an instant, and has an uncanny ability to sense the needs of someone he is targeting, which makes him an extremely effective manipulator… even with those who know him best. Like most people selected for his type of work, Azzan is extremely intelligent, classified on many scales as a genius, his memory is nearly photographic, something which aids him greatly in recalling past covers, or any bit of necessary information, while also allowing him to absorb new information at a prodigious rate. Like all top-level operatives, he is trained to be able to become an expert on any subject should the need arise, and to be able to do so in a very short time. Zero Point Energy During the shift, like many people, Azzan was granted a power beyond that of any normal human. His particular talent is the ability to generate a field which science fiction has titled ‘zero-point’, or the lowest-possible energy state possible. The field he generates is capable of dropping the energy state of anything caught within the field to this point, though the rate at which it does so is not instantaneous. A simple example of this is what occurs if a bullet is fired into the field – in a very short span of time, the bullet would slow and come to an abrupt stop, making the field appear nearly solid. Larger-energy states, such as the kinetic energy of a moving object, are drained first, followed by the object’s remaining thermal energy. This effect causes his fields to be accompanied by a region of intense, lethal cold, eventually approaching absolute zero (0 Kelvin) if the field is maintained for long enough. This makes entry into the field highly dangerous for humans and even most machinery, thanks to the extreme cold. Energy is drained from all particles within the field at the same rate, meaning that no form of insulation protects against it, but such protection is effective against the cold that surrounds the field itself. The drain of thermal energy is far slower than that of motive kinetic energy, however, and it would take several minutes worth of exposure to truly be lethal. Essentially, the less (or the more slowly) an object accelerates, the less effective the field is. Additionally, the field can be used to lift heavy objects with very little effort, since any potential energy due to height cannot be converted to kinetic energy so long as the object remains in the field, making it extremely easy to move, and rendering it effectively weightless. This is true even should the object be only partially encased, assuming that the portion enclosed is connected strongly enough to the rest to support the remaining weight. Naturally, the ease of mobility this causes also means he can throw the items in question as easily as he might a baseball. Azzan’s ability is limited, however, by his own body’s ability to handle the cold produced by his power. While he has an abnormal tolerance to cold since the Shift, and could likely live comfortably in very high lattitudes without significant protection, extensive use of his power will produce enough cold to do even him great harm, even killing him. Another limitation of his ability is the size of the field he can create – the largest field he has been able to generate under normal conditions is a sphere approximately six feet in diameter and is relatively weak – the smaller the field he creates is, the more potent it becomes. For this reason, in combat, he typically focuses the field into a thin blade approximately four feet in length, much like a sword, which he can use in a similar fashion. While the field does not cut like a blade, it does subject the matter it passes through to great shear stresses and intense cold, causing significant damage. He is not capable of generating fields entirely outside his body – even should he generate the sphere further from his body, he must at least be able to touch its outer surface. Finally, despite the fact that the field should be extremely difficult for a person to escape, it is not impossible – an object that moves very slowly can slip away from the field, so it is possible to escape much the same way it is possible to escape from quicksand… which doesn’t mean that it isn’t quite easy to allow yourself to be caught, and slowly freeze from its effect. dangerously as well. Applying an external force to the field (firing into it, for instance) ‘softens’ the field slightly, since it must divert energy to draining the new force, and may allow an ensnared item to escape. Personal Profile Appearance By and large, Azzan goes to some lengths to be unremarkable. He is of average height for an Israeli (that is to say he is somewhat shorter than the average American), with lightly tanned skin and dark hair, with dark eyes to match. While highly trained, with a reasonably well-defined figure, he generally dresses in such a way as to de-emphasize his fitness, especially when it would be more advantageous to play the weakling. His attire is clean, classy but generally simple, the better to avoid attention, though this can change completely on the rare occasion where he would prefer to draw attention. While he does not believe so much in masks and other such disguises, he is a firm believer that a change in mannerisms, accent, and other little details is a far better disguise than any cheap rubber implement or hair dye. As such, his clothing and other effects vary as much as his loyalties, but always with a very specific purpose in mind. Personal Belongings None – Azzan carries what is needed to achieve his current goals, and does not believe in keeping to a pattern, especially with something he might always carry that could then be bugged and used against him. Personality Azzan is an extremely calculating individual, often cold, and he avoids sentimentality almost as though he has a grudge against it. He prides himself on having a plan for every eventuality, and being able to conjure one out of thin air in mere moments even should something take him by surprise, though such an event is extremely rare. He is not an actively cruel person, but his utter lack of conscience means that he will behave as one in an instant if he believes it will further his cause. That is true of many things, in fact – he is utterly ruthless and will do anything he feels he has to, and has no problem whatsoever sleeping at night. In Azzan’s mind, one obtains only what they are able to take – by force or by trick, and nothing is gained by serving anyone but himself. This is not to say that he loathes other people, and hatred is an emotion as rare to find in him as love. People do what they need to do, him included – yet so many people find reasons to avoid doing what they should, and he looks upon such people with pity as much as disdain. Not that either would prevent him from crushing them underfoot without a second’s thought. Azzan devours information with the appetite of a starving man, and retains it nearly without fail, discarding only truly trivial information – though to his extremely detail-oriented (and potentially obsessive-compulsive) mind, very few if any details can be considered truly trivial. He is lightning quick, exceptionally thorough, and utterly decisive. It is, in fact, that last part that contributes to his success more than any of the rest – his lack of hesitation puts him far ahead of the vast majority of people, and his intelligence generally gives him at least a fair shot with the rest. There is at least one who has given him trouble in the past – perhaps the only one who might cause even a flicker of conscience in him. Spiritual Convictions None. Azzan was raised Jewish, and has habits from that religion, but does not hold to any of them intentionally. Strengths/Weaknesses Strengths - Detail oriented and thorough - Decisive - Viciously intelligent - An utter chameleon, and very convincing - Master con artist Weaknesses - Ability potentially lethal to himself - No true allies whatsoever - Arielle… potentially. - Difficult to hide sociopathy from empaths - Shellfish allergy History Little is known about Azzan’s family, except that his mother and father were both killed when he was around eight years old. It IS known that his father was a top Mossad operative for many years, and one of the top trainers of new operatives in later years. At some point his cover was compromised, for reasons also unknown, and young Azzan was the sole survivor of his family, including his older brother and sister. Before the ‘incident’, he was a normal enough child, idolizing his father and dreaming one day of becoming a professional soccer player – something at which he displayed great skill, even at such a young age. Remanded into the care of the State until he was of age, Azzan’s dream changed, and from that day forward he seemed intent on following his father’s footsteps as an operative, one of the shadow defenders of Israel. Receiving top marks in school his entire life, he graduated and was accepted into the training program his father once ran, rising quickly through the ranks due to his determination, work ethic, and sheer skill with the art of deception. It is suspected by some that his marks were artificially ‘enhanced’ by infiltration of the training records, but such rumors were never truly considered a black mark. After all, one with enough skill to pull such a trick over the instructors and senior operatives at such a young age clearly has skills enough to merit high marks in the first place. Graduating at the top of his class, Azzan went to work as an agent and forger, providing information and support to higher-level teams, even providing a number of assets in critical areas. It did not take so very long for his prowess to grant him a promotion to the upper echelons of the organization, and he was admitted as a Katsa ‘Jumper’ around the same time as the legendary Arielle Meir-Shira, whom he worked with closely for the next several years, personally providing her cover identities and mission support in many cases. He also proved himself an extremely skilled assassin, though never with a sniper rifle or other weapon, and rarely with anything as direct as poison. No, Azzan’s specialty lay in “accidental” deaths, ones so apparently innocent, poisons or interference could hardly be seriously considered. Minor mechanical failures, unforeseeable maintenance accidents… tragedies, to be certain – and invariably lethal. In their years of working together, Azzan and Arielle proved one of the most devastatingly effective teams in the history of Mossad, and eventually carried on a passionate affair – right under the noses of their officials, and entirely unsanctioned, but very real nonetheless. Azzan even expressed a desire to marry, once the years had passed enough for them to leave the Service, though he was generally vague about the future, saying that while he always had a plan, trying to plan too far into the future was a futile endeavor. She was the only one he allowed to see any true emotion, showing nothing but a mask to all others, even the others they worked closely with, and especially their superiors. While it might simply have been the close guard many Jumpers developed, Azzan eventually revealed exactly what that guard had been hiding. It was a crucial mission in Dubai – one of the largest in the history of Katsa, involving some thirty operatives, all intending to take down the leader of a powerful cell, and gather a huge amount of intel on other operations. Azzan and Arielle, as usual, worked together on the speartip of the operation, and Azzan provided flawless cover identities to each operative, false DNA profiles were inserted in databases, each provided with perfect histories and papers as always. The assassination was carried off without a hitch, and Azzan secured the target files just as Arielle finished with the kill… and that was when Azzan revealed what he was truly doing. His mission had been a dual one from the start – he had accepted a staggering sum from a rival cell to destroy the one targeted by their team, but there were additional targets: the Katsa team itself. He had leaked their true identities and profiles to enemy intelligence, and the first hint of the ambush came when nearly two dozen of the thirty operatives were caught or killed in one swoop, with Azzan and Arielle the only ones to remain unharried. He explained to her, and only to her, asking her to come with him – that his father’s melancholy in his later years, and his death, had only proven to Azzan that Israel was not worthy of their service. That their country had demanded everything from them, that they live and die in obscurity, risking the greatest torture for the least rewards… and Azzan would no longer be a part of it. He had fooled Mossad from the very beginning, playing the dutiful son while he used them for training and connections, playing along until he had a truly valuable opportunity to sell, and move himself into the private sector, as a freelance operative, working for himself and no one else. Arielle refused… and he had no choice but to release her information as well, and move on to his new employers… after which he vanished entirely. For the four years since that day, there have been no true confirmed sightings of Azzan, though his hand has been suspected in a number of operations, for a score of countries. Not always for ‘evil’, but certainly for the highest bidder… and it may be only a matter of time before he makes a play for his own power. Timeline July 15th, 2014 - Too, Too long - Almost four years since his betrayal of Mossad in Dubai, Azzan extends an invitation to his long-lost lover... with information about her recently deceased mother. October 9th, 2014 - Covers... several kinds - On mission during the Gala on Atlantis, Azzan and Arielle have a chance to catch up, or trade a few barbs, as the case may be. November 1st, 2014 - Clandestine Conversations - Still hot on the trail of the man who murdered Arielle's mother, Azzan visits the Lioness at her office, and discuss their plans for taking revenge Relationships Allies Enemies Category:Canons